This patent application claims priority from German patent application 100 06 848.0-34 filed Feb. 16, 2000.
PC cards, such as those offered as memory cards, modem cards, fax cards and the like in the standards of PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association), have a circuit board whose front end is coupled to a front connector molded plastic body, and whose rear end may be coupled to a rear molded plastic body. The PC card has a casing formed of top and bottom sheet metal casing halves, or parts. Each casing part has bent tabs at its ends that fit into vertical slots in the plastic bodies at the front and rear ends of the card. The casing parts are held in place by fitting them together, and are held to the plastic bodies by the tabs until the casing parts can be laser welded together. In practice, the casing parts can shift positions prior to welding them together, which makes it difficult to accurately weld or otherwise fix the casing parts together tightly around the plastic bodies. A casing for a PC card which enabled the casing to be easily preassembled in an assembly that minimized shifting of the casing parts prior to final latching or laser welding, would be of value. Such assembly would be especially valuable for a PC card with a rear extension which had a plastic upper wall. Such plastic upper wall can be useful in application such as where the extension contains an antenna designed to receive and radiate signals and to simplify mechanical connection.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a PC card is provided with a casing having parts that be easily assembled and that then hold themselves together with minimum shifting prior to welding or other final fixing connection. The invention is especially useful to hold a rear extension of a casing in place. The upper casing portion includes front and rear casing parts. The rear casing part has a forward edge portion with at least one forwardly-projecting finger having a free front end. The front casing part is formed of sheet metal and has a rear edge portion with a downwardly depressed part forming a recess with a bottom wall and an open rear end. The finger is receive in the recess, the bottom wall of the recess lying closely under the finger to prevent upward movement of the rear edge portion of the casing. At the same time, the rear edge portion lies on top of the front edge portion to prevent downward movement of the rear edge portion The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention will be best understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.